George Ferris honoured in Valentine’s Day Google Doodle

Google has launched a two-in-one Google Doodle, with today’s adaptation of the company’s iconic logo paying homage to George Ferris and Valentine’s Day.

The latest interactive doodle to capture the imaginations of those using the world’s largest search engine, today’s Google Doodle sees the expected Valentine’s Day themed adaptation partnered with a quirky remembrance for George Ferris, the man credited with creating the much loved Ferris wheel.

Featuring a pair of revolving Ferris wheels on a fairground backdrop, the latest interactive Google Doodle allows users to hit a Valentine’s Day themed button, spinning the wheels faster to generate a random match up of animal based dates. Adding to the Doodle’s humour and likability, the match ups then skip to a picture based insight into the resulting dates, often in comedic fashion.

Bringing the day of love to a more meaningful Doodle, Google has honoured what would have been the 154th birthday of George Ferris. Born on February 14 1859, Ferris, who hailed from Illinois, created the first Ferris wheel for inclusion at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The now iconic attraction was designed as an exhibit to eclipse the Eiffel Tower, constructed in Paris for the 1889 world’s fair.

The latest in a long line of user-engaging Google Doodles, last month saw Frank Zamboni’s birthday celebrated in a playable Google Doodle that tasked users with repairing an ice rink using the Zamboni machine the inventor created and gave his name to.

Seeing unlikely pairings such as a tortoise and a hare (a date which sees the tortoise turn up late), an octopus and a bear (a calamitous pairing which sees the octopus unimpressed by a trip to a sushi restaurant), and a fox who fails to get a date, the latest Google Doodle looks at the good, the bad and the lonely sides of Valentine’s Day.

Past interactive adaptations of the Google logo have seen a wide range of global events honoured on the company’s home page. Most memorably, last year’s London 2012 Olympic Games saw a selection of sports turned into a Google Doodle heptathlon, instruments and musicians remembered in playable form and the now iconic Pac Man Google Doodle, which, in remembering the game’s anniversary, reportedly cost the global economy $120 million (£74.7m) in lost work hours.

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